ADAPT – The Five Steps to Becoming a Walking Fish

A – Awareness: The ability to understand yourself, others, and your environment through peak listening,digesting, and empathizing.

• Peak listening research described in The Plateau Effect by Bob Sullivan & Hugh Thompson – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpUUUUI7ruk
• Seeking to understand before being understood described in Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOpKziGrxSE

D – Dive in: Commit to your goal. Grit is not only the ability to try hard, but the ability to continue trying knowing you will sometimes fail.

• The Key to success? Grit” (Angela Lee Duckworth TED Talk) – http://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit
• Marie Warrell: Is comfort holding you back – http://www.forbes.com/sites/margiewarrell/2013/04/22/is-comfort-holding-you-back/
• Martin Seligman (founder of Positive Psychology): Building resilience – http://hbr.org/2011/04/building-resilience – building resilience against failure. In his academic research, he found that the key to doing so is optimism. This article provides a great explanation of that study along with how he has gone on to share his findings to help our army deal with PTSD and grow from their trauma and setbacks.

A – Attention: Prioritize, focus, and avoid distractions (anti-multitasking step).

• Infomania research described in The Plateau Effect by Bob Sullivan & Hugh Thompson -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpUUUUI7ruk

P – People: Surround yourself with people who believe you have endless possibilities to create an open mindset.

• Fixed talent vs. learned talent research – http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ulteriormotives/201202/role-models-and-beliefs-about-leadership
• Stanford research on open vs closed mindset: “The Effort Effect” by Marina Kravovsky -http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/magazine/article/?article_id=32124

T – Trial and Error: Problem solve by testing, reflecting, and changing. This is the ultimate step once you areaware, willing to dive in and fail, with focused attention on your goals and believe you can succeed through an open mind set by surrounding yourself with people who believe in you.

• Eric Ries “The Lean Startup” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEvKo90qBns
• Good enough never is (or is it) by Eric Ries – http://www.startuplessonslearned.com/2010/09/good-enough-never-is-or-is-it.html – The fundamental activity of a startup is to turn ideas into products,measure how customers respond, and then learn whether to pivot or persevere. All successful startup processes should be geared to accelerate that feedback loop.

Conclusion: We live in a rapidly changing world. Technology at work and at home has forced us into new and continually changing environments. What worked yesterday doesn’t work today. Robert Safian, editor and managing director of Fast Company, explains how the business climate has entered a next-two-hours era, which he calls The Age of Flux. This span of time, which will certainly last another decade if not more, will be continually characterized by the dizzying pace of change caused by the global adoption of social, mobile, and other new technologies. (http://www.fastcompany.com/1802732/generation-flux-meet-pioneers-new-and-chaotic-frontier-business)

We believe that the answer is found in understanding the stories and 5 steps in how successful disabled people adapted to become walking fish. We believe disability has the power to enhance the diversity of perspective.